Status of Soil Information in Iraq
prof.dr. Ahmad S. Muhaimeed soil Survey and management ,expertise
soil sciences and water resources college of Agriculture Baghdad University
Soil Survey Works in Iraq : Before 1965 :-
- There was no any specialized office responsible for arrangement of soil survey work in Iraq. - Most of soil survey works had been done by foreigner staff. - Most of the works done for specific purposes (salinity, soil texture ,nutrient levels …..etc.) - Soil survey works have been done using an old USA system to classify the soils.
- The most common work was done by Buringh ,1960 at reconnaissance level of soil survey with map units represent soil great group level.
After 1965 : -
- The state board for land reclamation was established to take the responsibility for the soil survey works.
- Soil taxonomy was used to classify the sols.
-Most of the soil survey works were done at detail level and map of 1/ 25 000 scale.
- About 35% of Iraq area was covered by this soil survey works.
SOILS OF IRAQ
-Iraqi soils show a wide variation in the degree of development.
-Soil development increases from the south to the northern part of Iraq due to the differences in the activity of soil formation factors.
Factors of Soil Formation :-
The dominant factors controlling soil formation in Iraq are :
-parent materials : recent alluvium , calcareous or gypsiferrous .
- Climatic conditions ranging from dry to sub humid with mean annul precipitation of less than 100mm to more than 1000mm in northern region Iraq.
-Physiographic ranges from the Mountain in the northern to nearly flat plain in southern part.
- Low density of natural vegetation.
Physiographic Units
Total Iraqi Area : 438 317 sq. km Agriculture land : 94 500 sq.km Forest land : 8 230 sq. km
Land Utilization
Land Degradation : 1- Salinity 2- Soil Erosion : wind and Water. 3- Biological 4- Physical .
Soil Classification :
Iraqi Soils were classified according to the dominant chemical composition as following :
Figure 3: Distribution of Salt- Affected Soils in Iraq.
- Tel Abta1
Ap
BtR
Cy
Gypsum %
0.5
0.6
43
2- Al-Tharthar
Ap
BtR
Cy
Gypsum %
33
40
34
3- Debnui
Ap
C1
C2
Gypsum %
1.3
0.4
0.2
Figure 2: Distribution of Gypsiferous Soils in Iraq.
Figure 1: Distribution of Calcareous Soils in Iraq.
2- Erbil
Ap
Bk
C
CaCO3 %
15
25
21
Ap
1- Penjawen CaCO3 %
Bt
Btk
C
3
6
15
9
Ap
C1
C2
CaCO3 %
3- Mesopotamia
27
28
30
The dominant soil orders in Iraq
The results of soil survey works on Iraqi Soils ,indicate the presence of the following soil orders :-
1- Aridisols including the following great groups: - Aquisalids - Haplosalids - Petrogypsids - Calcigypsids - Haplogypsids - Paleargids - Gypsiargids - Calciargids - Haplargids - Petrocalcids - Halocalcids - Haplocambids
2- Entisols with the following great groups :
-Psammaquents - Xerarent -Xerofluvents - Fluvaquents - Torriarents - Torrifluvents
- Torripsamments - Xeropsamments - Torriorthents - Xerorthents
3- Inceptisols : - Haplaquepts
- Calcixerpts - Haploxerepts
4- Mollisols including the following great groups:
-Calciaquolls - Calcixerolls - Argiaquolls -Argixerolls - Haploxerolls
5- Vertisols including the following great groups:
- Calcixererts - Haploxererts - Gypsitorrerts - Calcitorrerts - Haplotorrerts
Iraqi Soil Maps -There is no detail soil map done yet at the regional scale . But, at district, there are a detail studies (more than 35%):
- Soil map at 1/25 000 scale - salinity map - land use map
- soil texture map - There are two general maps done using RS and GIS . .
Proposal of soil mapping works
– Developing Iraqi soil maps :- - Stage 1 :soil map on scale of 1/250 000 at subgroup
This work was started in 2011. - Stage 2 : on scale of 1/50 000 at soil series level for some counties have detail soil survey works. - Data from previous pedological works were collected for more than 250 locations in Iraq. - Data include : general soil profile descriptions - soil physical properties. - soil chemical properties .
- -.
Data Collections:
- developing Iraqi soil map . - digitizing all the collected data . - creating soil data base for the next uses.
Suggestions : In order to increase the accuracy of the out puts of the GSP work :
-Select the most common soil classification system. - Training some representative team work on the application of the selected system . -Workshop to recheck the results of soil survey mainly for the soils on the borderers between
the joint countries .
Thank you for attention